The objective was to build a state-of-the-art hospital that would fuse cutting-edge health care with the hospitality and service of the world’s finest hotels.

Training
on a Massive Scale

As we moved closer to the opening date,
training began on a massive scale. Almost 1,200 new and transplanted employees
had to be trained—not just in new hospital processes, but also in
the combination of IT systems that
pertained to their department or area of work. Frequent checkpoints, team
huddles and numerous conference calls
ensured that all the work was coordinated.

Nearly 1,200 members
of the clinical and physician staff were
being trained in every available
conference room, lunch roomopen
space in or near the hospital.

Among
the important activities
were
day-In-the-life scenarios:
all-day
simulations of key
hospital processes, such as admitting patients,
delivering a baby and performing diagnostics.

Underlying everything
was the digital nervous system to make it all work. We
needed to ensure the
IT systems talked with each other
. For
example, the
nurse call system had to properly alert patients, and dietary orders (with food
allergy notes) had to make it to the kitchen accurately and on
time.

When the hospital opened on
March 15, 2009, it was a fantastic experience for
all involved. It was
an undertaking that involved hundreds
of talented people,
including more than 100 engineers and managers.

The IT program executed very well,
with only the minor program
issues, which were to be expected for
something of this size. The fact that a complex,
varied collection of technologies came together and worked so
well on the delivery date can be traced back to careful planning, team
collaboration and open communication.

Three
years later, Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital continues to outpace other
local hospitals, its
Press-Ganey
scores are setting national records and p
atient volumes have exceeded expectations.

Tom Barnett is the IT director at
the Detroit-based Henry
Ford Health System. He can be reached at tom.barnett@earthlink.net.